Update and prognosis of <i>Dermacentor</i> distribution in Germany: Nationwide occurrence of <i>Dermacentor reticulatus</i>.

A considerable range expansion of Dermacentor reticulatus has been observed in several European countries, which is concerning in the light of its vector function for several pathogens, including Babesia canis and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). The present study provides an update on the distribution of Dermacentor ticks in Germany, using a citizen science approach. Ticks were collected by citizens from March 2020 to May 2021, and submitted along with information on the date and location of collection, potential hosts and details about the circumstances of discovery. In total, 3,292 Dermacentor specimens were received, of which 76.4% (2,515/3,292) were identified as D. reticulatus and 23.0% (758/3,292) as D. marginatus, while 0.6% (19/3,292) were too damaged for species-level identification. Dermacentor reticulatus was received from all federal states of Germany. Maxent species distribution models predicted suitable environmental conditions for D. reticulatus throughout Germany. Findings on the vegetation or on pastured animals without travel history confirmed the occurrence of this tick species as far north as the most northern German federal state Schleswig-Holstein. In contrast, the distribution of D. marginatus still appears to be limited to southwestern Germany, although the northward shift of the distribution limit observed in the preceding citizen science study, as compared with previous published distributions, was confirmed. This shift was also predicted by Maxent species distribution models, reflecting the broader distribution of the tick occurrence data contributed by citizens. Most D. reticulatus ticks were found on dogs (1,311/1,960, 66.9%), while D. marginatus was mainly discovered on hoofed animals (197/621, 31.7%) and humans (182/621, 29.3%). Human tick bites were reported in 0.7% (14/1,960) of host-assigned D. reticulatus and 3.4% (21/621) of host-assigned D. marginatus. Further studies to investigate an increasing endemisation of Babesia canis in Germany as well as the relevance of D. reticulatus for TBEV spread throughout the country, e.g., by traveling dogs, are urgently needed. In view of the activity of D. reticulatus during winter or the colder months, which complements that of Ixodes ricinus, a year-round tick protection of at least dogs is strongly recommended

Turning the Shelves: Empirical Findings and Space Syntax Analyses of Two Virtual Supermarket Variations Judgements of Building Complexity and Navigability in Virtual Reality

Finding a product in a new supermarket is a complex, cognitive process. Earlier studies (Kalff & Strube, 2009, Gil et al., 2009)indicate that shopper’s path choice decisions in such environments are strongly influenced by their background knowledge: the placement of products in a store, especially the collocation of semantically similar types of products (e.g., tinned sweetcorn found with tinned goods rather then fresh corn‐on‐the‐cob). Supermarkets provide an apparently spatially homogenous environment, and it could therefore be expected that a shop’s content (the products) and their placement are the paramount factor in shopper movement, with only limited effects of spatial configuration. In the present study, the spatial structure of a virtual supermarket was systematically varied to investigate cognitive processes and behaviour in unusual building configurations. The study builds upon experiments in a regular supermarket, which serve as a baseline case. In a between‐participant design 41 participants completed a search task in two different virtual supermarket environments. For 21 participants the supermarket shelves were turned towards them at a 45° angle when entering the store, providing high visual access to product categories and products from the main aisle. For 20 participants the shelves were placed in the opposite direction. Both the turning angle of the shelves and the level of congruence between expected and actual location of a product had a significant impact on search times. Environmental features were analysed using space syntax techniques both at the global level of the store, and at the level of individual pairs of start and goal locations for each product, including step depth and isovist measures (particular emphasis is on the visual properties of each product’s location). The area of the main aisle, as visible from each product, as well as the compactness of the isovist generated from the product location, proved to be significant predictors of shopper’s search time. It is suggested that this may reflect the importance of having visual access to a product from relatively long lines of sight. Contrary to the initial hypothesis that higher visual access to a product always yields lower search times, we find that it can also provide distraction. Partialling out these geometric variables for an ANOVA analysis (analysis of variance) reveals that they strongly contribute to the obtained difference of search time between the two layout conditions, and they also have a moderating effect on the influence of background knowledge on search performance. Further analysis suggests that participants rely on different path choice strategies that appear to be influenced by local features of geometry as well as inter‐product similarity at choice points such as corridor intersections. A qualitative analysis of movement trajectories and verbal reports from the study participants was conducted and found to characterize typical decision patterns and possible underlying reasoning along a product search path. In conclusion, despite the predicted strong effect of shopper’s preferences and their prior product knowledge, the spatial layout of the shop was still shown to have a consistent effect upon the selection of search paths and search duration

Modelling Motivation and Action Control in Cognitive Systems

The traditional way to define – and model – cognition, from the mid-fifties onward, has been to focus on deliberation, i.e., on those inferential processes that operate on well-defined symbolic mental representations in order to get a task accomplished that would require intelligence for human beings to solve. Consequently, AI programs, as well as computer models of psychological processes, were largely confined to a world of symbols. Only a few projects attempted to overcome these limitations and take a step towards more realistic interaction, such as Winograd’s famous SHRDLU (Winograd, 1972). Still, the seminal work accomplished in GPS (Newell &amp; Simon, 1963) and STRIPS (Fikes &amp; Nilsson, 1971) continues to be the anchor point for most of AI and cognitive science alike. Recent years, however, have brought a veritable paradigm shift: interaction with the ‘real’ environment – physical, or human users, or other ‘agents ’ – has been brought to the fore; and ‘situatedness ’ (Suchman, 1987) and the ability for communication and co-operation (as in distributed AI) have become important criteria. The basic nature of biological cognitive systems, including humans, has been recognise

Everyday Navigation in Real and Virtual Environments Informed by Semantic Knowledge

The effect of semantic knowledge on performing an everyday wayfinding task was investigated in real and virtual grocery stores. Participants had to search for 15 food items exhibiting varying degrees of congruency with background knowledge with respect to their placement in a mid-sized supermarket. Food categories and the congruency of categories with the placement of pertinent food items was assessed pre-experimentally using a card-sorting task with customers and store managers. Experiment 1 was conducted in a real supermarket (tracing participants by means of RFID techniques) and replicated in the same market as a virtual environment (Exp. 2), allowing insights into potential differences. Exp. 3 used a VR variation where all the pictures on the shelves of the VR supermarket were replaced with printed labels. Results regarding semantic knowledge yielded stable and fairly high effect sizes across experimental conditions, revealing that semantic congruency with shopping goods ’ placements made the search for food items much more efficient. The results show that even abstract background knowledge (semantic categories) may be involved in human navigation

Shared knowledge in collaborative problem solving: Acquisition and effects

Whenever heterogeneous experts work together, shared knowledge comes into play. In recent years, two important research questions have emerged that we will address in the present paper. First, we analyzed if collaborative problem solving leads to the construction of shared knowledge. The second goal of this study was to demonstrate the assumed positive effect of shared knowledge on collaborative problem solving. Following Newell and Simon’s (1972) classic view of problem solving, we distinguish shared knowledge about the initial situation, the goals, and the operators. The kind and amount of prior shared knowledge was varied as an independent variable in four experimental conditions. We showed that participants acquired shared knowledge during the cooperation and that most of this information was correct. Further results indicate that if collaborating partners have knowledge in common, their overall problem solutions are better than if they lack any kind of shared information. However, this effect seems to be mostly due to shared knowledge about initial situation and goals, as this leads to better solutions than shared knowledge about operators

The cognitive psychology of knowledge /

The present book is a result of a seven-year (1986-1992) national research program in cognitive science in Germany, presumably the first large scale cognitive science program there. Anchored in psychology, and therefore christened Wissenpsychologie (psychology of knowledge), it has found interdisciplinary resonance, especially in artificial intelligence and education. The research program brought together cognitive scientists from over twenty German universities and more than thirty single projects were funded. The program was initiated by Heinz Mandl and Hans Spada, the main goals of which were to investigate the acquisition of knowledge, the access to knowledge, and the modification and application of knowledge from a psychological perspective. Emphasis was placed on formalisms of knowledge representation and on the processes involved. In many of the projects this was combined with computer simulations. A final but equally important goal was the development of experimental paradigms and methods for data analysis that are especially suited to investigate knowledge based processes. The research program has had a major impact on cognitive psychology in Germany. Research groups were established at many universities and research equipment was provided. It also inspired a considerable number of young scientists to carry out cognitive research, employ modeling techniques from artificial intelligence for psychological theorizing, and construct intelligent tutoring systems for education. Close contacts with cognitive scientists in the U.S. have helped to firmly integrate the program with international research endeavours. Each year, one or two workshops were held. The present volume is the result of the final workshop which was held in September 1992. Selected results from seventeen projects are presented in this book. The volume is enriched by three guest scholars who agreed to participate in the final workshop and to comment on the chapters of the book.Includes bibliographical references and indexes.Knowledge Access and Knowledge-Based Judgement -- Knowledge Acquisition and Diagnosis -- Learning Procedures and Tutorial Systems -- Complex Problem Solving and Applications.The present book is a result of a seven-year (1986-1992) national research program in cognitive science in Germany, presumably the first large scale cognitive science program there. Anchored in psychology, and therefore christened Wissenpsychologie (psychology of knowledge), it has found interdisciplinary resonance, especially in artificial intelligence and education. The research program brought together cognitive scientists from over twenty German universities and more than thirty single projects were funded. The program was initiated by Heinz Mandl and Hans Spada, the main goals of which were to investigate the acquisition of knowledge, the access to knowledge, and the modification and application of knowledge from a psychological perspective. Emphasis was placed on formalisms of knowledge representation and on the processes involved. In many of the projects this was combined with computer simulations. A final but equally important goal was the development of experimental paradigms and methods for data analysis that are especially suited to investigate knowledge based processes. The research program has had a major impact on cognitive psychology in Germany. Research groups were established at many universities and research equipment was provided. It also inspired a considerable number of young scientists to carry out cognitive research, employ modeling techniques from artificial intelligence for psychological theorizing, and construct intelligent tutoring systems for education. Close contacts with cognitive scientists in the U.S. have helped to firmly integrate the program with international research endeavours. Each year, one or two workshops were held. The present volume is the result of the final workshop which was held in September 1992. Selected results from seventeen projects are presented in this book. The volume is enriched by three guest scholars who agreed to participate in the final workshop and to comment on the chapters of the book.Print version record.Elsevie

CHAPTER 6 EVENTS–II: 1 MODELING EVENT RECOGNITION

We report on a research project aimed at the representational and procedural aspects of episodic memory. In this article, we concentrate on the implications of the characteristics of actors in script based episodes on recognition memory, namely their plausibility with respect to the functional roles they are involved in, and the similarity between tested items. The assumptions derived from the theoretical model are contrasted with empirical findings as well as with the results of the cognitive modeling. What comes into play when remembering events? Everyday events are not perceived as unrelated entities, rather they are processed in terms of previous experiences. In case of highly standardized activities, one can reasonably expect generic knowledge structures to develop in order to facilitate processing new experiences as instances of such stereotypical events. In postulating the existence of generic event schemata for well known events, we consider the implications for the encoding, representation, and retrieval of such particular events. A very influential approach to generic event schemata is the script theory by Schank and Abelson (1977). They state, with respect to their famous &amp;quot;restaurant script &amp;quot; example: &amp;quot;[alike episodes] are remembered in terms of